A Mixed Bag This Month . . .
By Director Wayne Hall

February 28, 2009

 
Listen, do you want to know a secret . . .

I mentioned last Newsletter how I recently attended a coin-op and vending machine Trade Fair in London. The people at the fair are generally an older crowd (35+ with many in their 50’s and 60’s) and predominantly male. It’s a fairly big show, with tens of thousands of people attending each year . . . the surrounding hotels enjoy a 100% occupancy rate for a good part of the week.

A great time to “make hay while the sun shines” for the local pubs too, as people spill out of the massive Earls Court Expo Halls around 6pm, eager for a pint, a chat with old friends . . . and a hearty meal.

That was the picture on my first evening, when I was led in to what looked like a classic ol’ English pub by a couple of Irish lads who operate juke boxes out of Dublin.

“What would like to drink?” Billy yelled.
“Mate, I’ll have whatever you’re having,” I screamed back.
“Sorry, what did you say?”
“Whatever you’re having!”
“Pint of Guiness it is.” I think he said as he waved acknowledgement. I didn’t have the heart - or the vocal chords - to tell him I didn’t like Guiness very much.

This sort of stuff fascinates me. A large, great looking pub on a busy walking thoroughfare, with the advantage of space, loads of comfortable seating . . . and fully aware of the type of crowd just about to hit it’s doors - and how does it respond? By showing (what I later found out to be) an unimportant football game at a volume which had to experienced to be believed. I must say, though, they had a great speaker set-up . . .

At around 7pm the place was pretty packed, as the people sampled their first ale for the day and honoured promised catch-up appointments. Not one person though - and I made a point of scanning the room continually - was watching the television.

It got more interesting, though, when at the half-time break in the footy the dance music kicked in . . .

“Mate! Do you think that, maybe, just maybe, you could turn the volume down a bit?” Billy screamed at the young guy collecting our glasses . . .
(A bewildered look from the glass-guy).
“The volume,” (clearly mouthed this time) “can you turn it down?”
“Oh yeah, no problem,” came the reply.

There was no way this guy was going to ever going to act on the request - he was enjoying the music way too much, tappn’ and a groovn’ his way round the tables.

And that’s how it turned out . . .

When we left around 8:30pm (we couldn’t take it any longer), most of the crowd had gone too. Close to a hundred people - all with plenty of credit and a desire to drink, eat and be merry -  had decided to do what we’d done; find somewhere else.

You can have the most stunning hospitality, retail or service space in the world, but if you don’t manage your audio environment so that it meets your audience profile (and preferences), then they will move on. Furthermore, personal music preferences can play havoc with a music strategy.

 

ARIA changes the tune . . .

We recently received advice from the Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA for short), which looks after audio reproduction licenses on behalf of Record Companies, about it’s planned new rates regime to come into affect later in the year. At this early stage all I can report is that we (and other B2B music suppliers) have asked them to re-assess their approach, as on the face of it the regime will substantially increase fees for certain music formats - up to five times the current cost in some instances. Hopefully through discussions the issues can be worked through (to comment at this stage would be to speculate), and I will keep you posted as negotiations progress.

 

Music, money and all that . . .

Now and then it is suggested to me that “this music caper must be a pretty easy way to make lots of money . . . I mean, all you do is throw some tracks together and away you go . . .”

Tell that to the record labels, who have endured vast cuts to staffing and resources over the past few years.

And tell that to Muzak, one of the world’s largest B2B music providers. On the 11th February 2009, the iconic supplier of elevator music filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S., burdened with debts which included an impressive $378 million owed to its banker alone. In the same month, U.S. based Rowe Juke Boxes - perhaps the world’s largest jukebox manufacturer - announced it was shutting it’s 100 year old Grand Rapid’s plant after laying off over 100 hundred staff - and moving the factory to Mexico.

These and many more failures will no doubt be put down by many to the global recession. I’m not so sure. I suspect owners and management have a bit more of a case to answer for, getting too caught up over the years in technology, process, and “return on investment” criteria, and not so caught up in delivering customer satisfaction.

Taking operations offshore is the thing to do, it seems. But just what will we do in future when our businesses are in trouble and wages in developing countries approach those of developed countries? After all, the whole idea, surely, is that people in the developing regions obtain wages parity at some point . . .

 

Wayne Hall
Director

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